BIRTHDATE: 21 Oct 1840

Graveley, England

DEATH: 17 March 1899

West Weber, Weber Co., Utah

PARENTS: John Wheeler

Elizabeth Gillings

PIONEER: 4 Sep 1857

William Walker Wagon Train

SPOUSE: Thomas Etherington

MARRIED: 9 March 1858

Salt Lake Endowment House

DEATH SP: 20 Jan 1907

West Weber Weber Co., Utah.

CHILDREN:

Elizabeth Ann (Hadley), 29 Dec 1858

Sarah Jane (Goodale), 30 Jan 1860

Mary Eliza (McFarland), 19 Jul 1862

Susan Adelia (McFarland), 2 Apr 1864

Frances Alice (Charlton), 9 Mar 1866

Ellen Marie, 4 Jan 1868

Thomas William, 29 Sep 1869

Emily Edith, 22 Oct 1870

Laura May (Blanch), 2 Jun 1873

Esther Caroline (McFarland), 13 Feb 1876

George William, 31 Oct 1879

James Albert, 31 Oct 1882

Sarah Wheeler was born in October, 1840, in England as the fourth child. Her parents had been among the first in England to accept the restored Gospel. When she was two weeks old she received a Mormon christening and blessing from Elder Joseph Fielding, uncle of Joseph Fielding Smith, later president of the Church. Sarah was brought up in the Church by parents who were enthusiastic, and strong in the faith.

At the age of nine, Sarah came to the United States with her parents and siblings. They stopped over for two years in Cincinnati, Ohio, then traveled on to Council Bluffs, Iowa. They remained here another five or six years before proceeding on to Utah.

The Wheeler family arrived in Utah on the 4th of September 1857. They settled in Slaterville, Weber County, Utah.

Sarah met Thomas Etherington, and they were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City in March, 1858, when she was seventeen. They made their home in Slaterville until the spring floods of the Weber River inundated their home and farmland. Then they moved to higher ground on the south side of the river and made their home there in West Weber, where they remained the rest of their lives.

Sarah had a large family and several hired men to feed. She raised three of her brother's children. She was an unusually fine cook, did a lot of knitting and hand-sewing. She was a kind, gracious woman who radiated good will.

Sarah served for twenty-eight years in the presidency of the West Weber Ward Relief Society (North Weber Stake), from 1871 to the day of her death.

She passed away at her home in 1899. The ward had planned a special program for that day of the Relief Society anniversary, but the celebration was postponed out of respect for Sarah's passing.

An obituary in the Deseret Evening News noted that she had held her long position in the Relief Society "with honor and trust until the time of her death. A more even tempered, kind-hearted woman would be hard to find." She and her husband are buried in the Ogden City Cemetery.